


Always

by BlackBlood1872



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, feel free to adopt one, just exploring alternate universes, other-earth barry's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:57:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBlood1872/pseuds/BlackBlood1872
Summary: Barry Allen is destined to become the Flash. It's in his blood, in his soul. It's a universal constant."My name is Barry Allen and I am the Flash."





	Always

 

When Barry Allen is twenty-five, STAR Lab's Particle Accelerator destabilizes, and he's struck by lightning.

But we already know this story.

* * *

When Barry Allen is twelve, he's struck by lightning.

He survives. His resting heart rate is abnormally fast. He gives off static charges like nothing else. Static cling is a nightmare.

He can run so fast, people say he's a blur.

* * *

When Barry (a different Barry, the same Barry) is eight, he's electrocuted in a pool.

It's during gym mandated swimming lessons, and everyone thinks the building is up to code. It isn't. Barry is the last one out of the pool, and an overhead light sparks and breaks. It falls, lands a foot behind Barry, and sets the water on fire.

Barry's heart stops for five minutes. The EMT thinks he's dead. He's not.

He comes back to life with a gasp, and his fingers blacken the tiles under them because of the shock. No one can explain it.

He refuses to go into the water ever again. His parents think he has a phobia. Barry's scared because every time he touches water – any liquid – sparks fly and his nerves ring.

After a while, he starts to run faster.

He wonders, once, if he's fast enough to run on water. He doesn't try to find out.

* * *

When Barrie is twenty-five, STAR Lab's Particle Accelerator destabilizes, and she's struck by lightning.

Her heart beats so fast, the monitor can't track it, and she "flatlines". She's taken to STAR Labs, where she stays in a coma for nine months.

(When she wakes, the joke is not lost on her.)

Suddenly, she can run faster than anyone ever could. Faster than ever thought possible. Faster than sound; faster than _time_ , in certain extreme cases.

She calls herself the Flash. The fastest woman alive.

* * *

When Barry is five, he's kidnapped.

He's held in a lab (probably) and kept locked in a tiny, sterile room when he's not strapped to a cold, sterile chair. He's poked and prodded. The scientists stick so many needles in him, and inject randomly colored serums into his veins.

Three days before the facility is raided and shut down, they start "shock therapy". One day before the police arrive, he loses his voice, throat raw from screaming.

A week after he's rescued, when he gets out of the hospital, he hugs his parents and doesn't speak.

Trauma, the specialists say a week after that. But he's young, and he'll forget the worst of it as he grows up.

Barry doesn't forget much.

(But at least now he can run the hell away if anyone looks like they're going to grab him.)

* * *

When Barry is nineteen, he suffers a seizure (randomly, the first one he's ever had) and can't stop shaking.

Soon, he realizes the shakes are his hands (and feet, and occasionally arms and legs) vibrating at speed.

One day, he's on a walk and his legs start shaking – the next thing he knows, he's three blocks away, and the shaking has stopped.

He jogs more after that. The tremors stop.

He runs, sometimes, and the world is a blur, is slow, when he does. It's kind of cool.

* * *

There are other Barry's, many more, infinite more. Some are the exception that prove the rule – these Barry's live blissfully normal lives and they never do find out just how strange the world really is.

But most Barry's can't run from their fate, even if they can run from everything else out there.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a tiny collection of various other possible Barry Allen's. Feel free to adopt one and expand on his (or her) universe. I wrote this in Sept/2016 but I couldn't think of any other pieces to add, so all I got was this short oneshot.
> 
> If you do end up writing something, maybe post me the link in the comments? Or say this one inspired you? I'd like to read them :)
> 
> I have a [Tumblr!](https://blackblood1872.tumblr.com) Feel free to ask me any questions there :D


End file.
